Passkeys for User Retention: Why Keychain keeps Customers

Passkeys are becoming the default way consumers sign in. Stored in iCloud Keychain or Google Password Manager, they persist across device upgrades and make returning sign-in effortless.

For growth teams, that creates a new retention lever: once a passkey is saved, re-login friction collapses to a single biometric step.

Nearly every smartphone is passkey-capable (99%+ mobile OS share). Passkeys are digital credentials tied to a user account and saved in platform credential managers or third-party password managers.

From the data that we observe across the general industry most of the passkeys are stored in the credential managers from Apple, Google and Microsoft. Only a very small fraction uses dedicated third-party credential managers (then, mostly by tech-savvy users).

Let's focus on Apple (iOS, macOS) and Android devices as their default credential manager syncs passkeys per default. Windows devices still have no syncable credential manager onboard as of January 2026. This is expected to change soon, so that also Windows users can benefit from the accessibility of synced passkeys. Today, these users would need to store their passkeys in Google Password Manager (via Chrome on Windows) or in 3rd-party password managers, such as 1Password.

On Apple devices, passkeys sync per default via iCloud Keychain and appear in the Passwords app. Users rarely delete them manually.

On Android and Chrome, passkeys sync via Google Password Manager. Google has also enabled passkey sync across Windows and macOS, expanding cross-platform reach. Samsung Android devices often uses the Samsung Pass app as the default credential manager though.

In recent decades, cookies played a crucial role for business-to-consumer (B2C) companies, allowing them to personalize the user experience with user-related information in websites and apps, such as storefront preferences for a single buyer. Enabling features such as adding items to shopping carts, saved preferences and user account information, they were essential for facilitating e-commerce transactions.

However, several developments have weakened cookie-based re-engagement:

The requirement for active opt-in consent for non-essential cookies was established by the CJEU Planet49 ruling (C-673/17) in October 2019, later reaffirmed by Germany's Federal Court (BGH) in May 2020. Websites must now provide clear information about the cookies they use, their purposes and obtain active consent before setting non-essential cookies.

Apple's Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) blocks many third-party cookies, limiting cross-site tracking and protecting user privacy.

Chrome tested restrictions and explored changes, but Google later announced Chrome will keep its current approach to third-party cookie choice and won't roll out a new standalone prompt. Meanwhile, Safari/WebKit has long had strong tracking prevention.

These limitations make clear that cookie-based re-engagement is less dependable, so getting users to easily log in matters now even more.

Passkeys stored in credential managers that sync across devices (e.g. iCloud Keychain, Google Password Manager) are a powerful tool for user retention. The "cost" of a user returning after weeks or months drops dramatically compared to password-based authentication, as passkeys cannot be forgotten (unlike passwords) and only very few users delete them manually.

Users are reminded which email they signed up with (if it's a usernameless login via Conditional UI or 1-tap passkey buttons). Moreover, they don't need to remember a password. Thus, they also don't need to hit password reset flows again.

Conditional UI presents available passkey in a convenient dropdown. Re-login UX feels like a native autofill, even after months of returning to a site. Features like 1-tap passkey buttons provide very similar experience and can this reduce friction further.

Users switching between phones or flipping browsers keep access to their passkeys if they keep the same credential manager. This is another benefit and reduces cart abandonment and churn.

Even after iOS / Android app uninstalls, passkeys remain in the credential manager. This allows a seamless login after a re-installation without remembering a password (or username).

The key takeaway is that a synced passkey stored in a credential manager makes reactivation cheap. For detailed implementation strategies, see our passkey creation best practices and passkey login best practices guides.

Timing matters for passkey user prompts. The three highest-conversion moments:

1. After successful conventional login: this is where the trust is just established and the user is engaged. Promote the passkey by making the next login even simpler and quicker.
2. After checkout: this is a high-intent moment and the user may want to return easily for future purchases.

Email (or in general a username) and a quick biometric scan (e.g. Face ID, Touch ID or the Android biometric equivalent) is all that's required for creating an account. There's no password needed. These simple requirements have also the potential to convert guest checkout users to accounts faster and increases your passkey coverage from day one.

Not all users want to immediately transition to passkeys or they might be on non-passkey-ready device. That's why it's important to keep a password or magic link fallback. A broken sign-in flow destroys retention gains. See fallback management strategies for implementation details.

Implementing passkeys is one thing. Understanding how they impact your retention metrics is another. Corbado provides comprehensive authentication analytics and observability out of the box:

Track the metrics that matter for user retention:

• Passkey activation rate: What's teh share of users who have created at least one passkey
• Login success rate: How often passkey logins succeed vs. how often fallback methods like passwords succeed
• Time-to-auth: How fast can users complete their sign-in process with passkeys vs. other methods like passwords

Understand passkey adoption across your user base:

• Breakdown by OS (iOS, Android, Windows, macOS)
• Browser compatibility insights
• Credential manager distribution (iCloud Keychain vs. Google Password Manager)

This observability helps growth teams prove ROI and identify optimization opportunities in the passkey retention loop. For a deeper dive, see our passkey analytics guide.

Passkeys present a powerful way to improve user retention by storing credentials in iCloud Keychain or Google Password Manager where they persist and sync across devices. They offer an alternative to cookie-era re-engagement, improving UX while increasing sign-up, re-login and retention rates.

But implementing passkeys without analytics is flying blind. Corbado's solution gives you the observability to measure impact: track passkey adoption, monitor re-login rates and prove retention improvements with real data.

Yes. Passkeys can be unlocked with any device screen lock method, including PIN or pattern.

Yes, via Settings → Passwords (iOS) or Google Password Manager (Android). Most rarely do.

No. Passkeys are site-bound credentials created per website/app. They cannot be used for cross-site tracking.

Yes. Passkeys stored in iCloud Keychain sync across Apple devices signed into the same Apple ID. Google Password Manager syncs passkeys across Android devices and Chrome browsers signed into the same Google account.